Hi,
What is your goal? I think what books we might recommend would really depend on your purpose.
For example, if your goal is to learn Physics as preparation for taking future Physics courses or to give yourself the equivalent of a first year physics course, then I would recommend either a senior high school level Physics textbook (if you have little experience with science/mathematics) or a freshman level Physics textbook (i.e. the textbook used in Physics classes for science students who are not majoring in Physics). Some example books that I have used or seen used to good effect are:
High school Physics (this was the one I used, but a newer edition):
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Principle ... th+edition
College level Physics (this was the one my undergrad used for non physics major first year physics):
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Scientist ... 1133947271
Higher level college physics (this was the one used by my school for students intending to major in Physics):
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Volume-1- ... ay+physics and
http://www.amazon.com/Physics-Volume-2- ... ay+physics
I think all of these books can be very good references to teach you introductory physics, depending on both the level of background science/math education as well as how deep you want to know. Doing the examples in these books will be very helpful if you are self-learning.
However, if your goal is to not prepare yourself for Physics courses or give yourself some basic Physics knowledge, then I would recommend actual books instead of textbooks. I don't know exactly which are the best ones though. Popular books are:
Richard Feynman's autobiography (
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Ad ... 0393316041)--although enjoyable I found this book to be very much to be Dr. Feynman stroking his own ego, in my opinion.
Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (
http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Tim ... 0553380168) is a good popular science book that discusses our current knowledge of the Universe.
Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything (
http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-N ... 076790818X) is a popular science book that discusses how we know a lot of the things we know, in all fields of science, not just Physics.
Finally, perhaps Lawrence Kraus' book (
http://www.amazon.com/Fear-Physics-Lawr ... 0465002188) will have the focus on just Physics that you might be looking for.
That's all I can remember right now, maybe others will have more suggestions!
Unfortunately, I don't think there is any book that can both help you with the technical side of Physics (i.e. the computations and knowledge you would get in the introductory physics textbooks) AND also cover history of everything that has been done and what current Physics is like. The majority of the Physics that is taught in introductory courses is Physics that was developed hundreds of years ago!